US CTO: Tech workers should consider a 'tour of duty' working for the government

The United States doesn't require any public service, military or
the like, of its citizens. However, many people still work in
government at some point, whether it's a clerk job at the
beginning of a lawyer's career or as an educator for a state-run
university.

Tech employees, though, are still
rare in government and few computer scientists offer
any kind of "digital service," said US Chief Technology Officer
Megan Smith during an on-stage interview in San Francisco
presented by the Commonwealth Club.

"If we’re the country that can make Facebook and Amazon and
Twitter, we need them to be in the government on tours of duty,"
Smith said.

Smith's role is to help harness data and advise the president on
policy decisions. While many tech workers eye the government with
distrust, especially after Edward Snowden's revelations, Smith's
argument is that tech workers need to be at the table in order to
help guide the discussion and be the technical expertise that the
United States sorely needs.

For example, Smith sat in on the net neutrality discussions
as a technical voice to explain how it worked while the
economists and lawyers each presented their viewpoints. The same
goes for big plans like fiber connectivity, where there needs to
be a tech expert there to help explain how to execute on building
these networks to connect Americans who don't have internet
access.

As the government continues to debate topics like encryption and
open-source technologies, computer scientists need to be involved
in those discussions from the beginning, Smith argues.

"We really want to have tours of duty. It can be six months, four
years. It can even be coming into the APIs and working with
them," Smith said.

Smith joined the government because she felt like she had a civic
duty. The former VP of Google X was in Africa a year ago
when she got an email from Todd Park, the US CTO at the time. 33
days later, Barack Obama called and asked her to come to serve in
DC.

"I said it'd be an honor, Mr. President," Smith said.

She doesn't condemn tech workers who move to Silicon Valley and
dream of building apps. After all, that's where she came from
too. But she does think tech workers should consider spending
some time in government because the issues on the horizon for the
United States are only going to become more technical.

"In order to form a more perfect union, it includes us and we
need to show up," Smith said.